With the craft beer industry in Vancouver a growing concern these days, Sours, Saisons and Hazy Pale Ales and India Pale Ale’s (IPA) seems to be the brews of choice for local company’s. 

It’s refreshing when a company like Parallel 49 brings back it’s Old Boy Brown Ale to complement current availability because of the classic taste and style of this type of recipe.

A Brown Ale History Lesson

As BeerAdvocate notes, 

“Spawned from the Mild Ale tradition, English Brown Ales tend to be maltier and sweeter on the palate, with a somewhat fuller body.” 

The Mild Ale itself refers to beer that was sold relatively soon after brewing and had not undergone any aging. It was not attached to any particular style of beer. Mild Ale’s were big in England in the mid 20th century but declined somewhat by the 1980’s. 

Brown Ales themselves were brewed in some form before the 18th century but they garnered more interest from drinkers in places like London after that. Bitter versions of brown beers if you can call them that evolved into Porter’s while the less bitter and hoppy style brown or nut brown ales did garner some attention from beer drinkers. 

Old Boy Brown Ale

When I grabbed this beer from the Tasting Room at Parallel 49, I tried one can without chilling it in the fridge. I don’t think it did the beer justice and I don’t normally obsess over serving beers at their correct temperature.

You can view the correct way to serve beer from the Dummies website and the book Beer for Dummies.

What I liked about this beer was its toasted styler, notes of toffee, what seemed like coffee and hints of chocolate. My beer tastes correlate with my tastes in coffee, particularly dark roasted full bodied style coffees that aren’t bitter.